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Seat belts work

2 min read

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently released a report on highway fatalities. The news is encouraging for most drivers and passengers as the fatality rate dropped to its lowest ever – 1.46 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. The increase in seat belt usage is one of the prime reasons that the nation’s highways continue to become safer. When the NHTSA began keeping records in 1966, the fatality rate was about five times its current level. Seat belts were non-existent or seldom used. Through intensive education and enforcement programs, such as Click It or Ticket, drivers and passengers have gotten the message. About 80 percent automatically buckle up. Those who don’t, increase the odds of dying in a crash. Reports – such as the one released by state police reporting the eight of the 11 people who died during Memorial Day weekend crashes were not wearing seat belts – are far too common.

Since seat belts have proven invaluable, it is ironic that a small but increasingly vocal push is on to repeal safety belts. This is being brought to us by the same folks who worked tirelessly to repeal helmet laws for motorcyclists in 30 states, including Pennsylvania last year.

All they succeeded in doing was raising – for the seventh straight year – the number of motorcyclists killed when their unprotected heads met the pavement.

We must acknowledge that in Pennsylvania last year motorcycle crash fatalities did decrease about 8 percent. However, there is some dispute as to the record keeping, and to the record-setting pace for fatalities in 2003. And after trying to repair the head trauma that might have been avoided, Pennsylvania’s emergency room physicians have now launched a campaign to promote helmet use.

We wish the doctors success in getting through. But unfortunately the chances of reestablishing a helmet laws are slim. Instead. the helmet repeal has led others to question the authority of the government to enforce safety laws for drivers and front-seat auto passengers. If helmets aren’t necessary, why are safety belts mandatory?

Posing that question can only lead to wrong answers. Here’s a better question: How many will needlessly die before the government realizes it got the helmet law wrong?

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